1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fundus camera for photographing a fundus of an eye to be examined.
2. Description of Related Art
For a fundus camera, accurate alignment with an eye to be examined (a patient's eye) and accurate focusing on a fundus are important to photograph the fundus favorably. As for the alignment, there is proposed a fundus camera, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication No. 2000-5131, in which a movable optical path bifurcating (dividing) member is arranged on an optical path between an objective lens and an apertured mirror, and reflection light from an anterior segment of the eye is reflected by the optical path bifurcating member and is guided to image-pickup means for anterior-segment observation to perform alignment based on a picked up image of the anterior segment of the eye. In this apparatus, the optical path bifurcating member is flipped up (is removed from the optical path between the objective lens and the apertured mirror), so that the fundus is photographed by image-pickup means for photographing.
However, if the optical path bifurcating member is arranged on the optical path between the objective lens and the apertured mirror, an optical axis of an optical system for anterior-segment observation is deviated from that of an optical system for fundus observation and/or an optical system for photographing due to a thickness of the optical path bifurcating member. Thereby, a possibility arises that a fungus image under an accurate alignment condition cannot be obtained.